This invention relates to graphics items used with a graphics-based user interface. More particularly, the present invention relates to positioning, sizing, and usage of graphics items outside a background.
Computers and computer programs employ a graphics-based user interface to facilitate interaction between a user and a computer or between the user and a computer program run on the computer. The graphics-based user interface commonly employs a background, which includes a bitmap digitally represented by an array of pixel values.
Conventional backgrounds maximally fill the entire two-dimensional display area for a display device, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The background size cannot be manipulated, selected, or changed by a user—its maximal size remains singularly and stringently fixed. The background also defines the usable limits of the graphics-based user interface. Graphics items, such as windows, used with the graphics-based user interface are limited to positioning and display within the background perimeter.